Remote / Hybrid • GMT/BST Timezone

Fractional CTO in London

Expert technical leadership for London startups. CTO services in GMT/BST timezone. Build, scale, and transform your product without full-time CTO costs.

Why London Startups Choose Fractional CTO

London is Europe's largest tech hub and the global FinTech capital. The city is home to thousands of startups with access to a strong VC ecosystem, international talent, and corporate partnerships. Industries like FinTech, InsurTech, PropTech, E-commerce, Enterprise SaaS, and AI thrive in this ecosystem.

However, this concentration creates unique challenges: engineering salaries are among the highest in Europe, competition for senior talent is intense, and investor expectations for technical maturity are extremely high. Many startups find that traditional full-time CTO hiring—costing £200K-£350K+ plus equity—is impractical at early stages. Post-Brexit changes also add complexity to talent acquisition.

Challenge

Challenges for London Startups

High engineering salaries make full-time CTO prohibitively expensive
Intense competition for experienced engineers
Investors expect high technical maturity
Need for rapid scaling after funding rounds

Regulatory requirements (FCA, GDPR, UK Data Protection)
High engineering salaries make full-time CTO prohibitively expensive
Intense competition for experienced engineers

Investors expect high technical maturity
Need for rapid scaling after funding rounds
Regulatory requirements (FCA, GDPR, UK Data Protection)

How Fractional CTO Solves These Challenges

Access to experienced CTO without London salary premiums (£150K-£300K+ annual savings)
Start immediately—no 3-6 month hiring process
Scale engagement up/down as you progress through funding rounds
Expertise in building distributed teams with remote-first focus
Global best practices, not limited to UK talent pool

What I do

Build MVP

Turn your startup idea into a working product

Tech stack selection for UK engineering market
Launch in 3-4 months with scalable foundation
Architecture ready for investor demos

Scale Product

Grow from seed stage to Series A

Handle 10x growth without outages
Manage technical debt and refactoring
Prepare for London VC due diligence

AI Transformation

Integrate AI/ML into your startup

LLM integrations and GPT-powered solutions
ML systems for competitive advantage
Strategy, implementation, and MLOps

Technology Audit

Technical assessment before raising capital

Code quality and architecture review
Prepare for London VC due diligence
Risk map and recommendations

Technical Due Diligence

For London investors evaluating startups

Comprehensive technical risk assessment
Team and product scalability analysis
Reports for investment committees

Team Building

Hire your first 5-10 engineers

Navigate UK candidate market
Build hybrid teams (local + remote engineers)
Establish engineering culture

Pricing

Packages for London Startups

Contract Length:

Currency:

Advisor CTO

$3,600per month

6 hours per week, 24 hours per month

For early-stage startups with an MVP or an idea that need oversight and support without full-time involvement.

2 strategic sessions per month (90 minutes each)
Technical stack and architecture audit
Slack support (48-hour response time)
Hiring support: candidate reviews and recommendations

What's included:

6-month technical roadmap
Architecture guidelines document

Outcome:A clear plan and recommendations for technology and team development without the overhead of a full-time CTO.

Contract term:1 month

Growth CTO

Scale CTO

$12,000per month

≈3 days per week, 80 hours per month

Series A+ startups with 15-20+ engineers preparing for the next funding round.

Everything from Growth CTO package
Participation in executive meetings and investor discussions
Building engineering management team (leads, engineering managers)
Due diligence support for fundraising
Organizational design: team structure, processes, rituals
Technical debt strategy and refactoring roadmap
Vendor and partner negotiations (AWS, third-party services, contractors)

What's included:

Engineering handbook and team culture code
Leveling and compensation framework
Engineering metrics dashboards (DORA, velocity, code quality, etc.)
Incident management and on-call rotation

Outcome:A mature engineering organization with clear processes, metrics, and a culture of product ownership.

Contract term:from 6 months

How Remote Work Functions with London Startups

Working hours overlap: 3-4 hours overlap with 9am-6pm GMT/BST for live calls (depending on DST). Outside this window, available asynchronously via Slack and email, enabling work without downtime.
Communication rhythm: Weekly strategic call with founders. Bi-weekly team sync. Daily communication via Slack. Emergency availability for critical issues.
In-person visits: Quarterly visits to London available for Scale CTO and higher packages. Available for board meetings and investor presentations (remote or in-person).